Three people have been arrested in Iraq’s Kurdistan Region for their alleged role in a global people smuggling network that moved migrants from the area to the UK and Europe.
The group of detained men are alleged to have links to the same network as Amanj Hasan Zada, a UK-based people smuggler who was jailed last year for his role in facilitating small boat Channel crossings.
All three men are in custody and will be prosecuted for human trafficking offences by the authorities in the Kurdistan Region of Iraq (KRI), the National Crime Agency said.
In the first operation of its kind, NCA officers were deployed to assist the region’s Security Council and Security Agency with the arrests.
One of those detained was a 38-year-old man accused of working with the smuggling network to coordinate the transportation of migrants into Greece or Italy using over a dozen yachts.
Each boat contained 60 or 70 people, who would then be moved on to northern Europe or the UK, the NCA said.